Mr Darcy shot her a quick glance, looking still more surprised by her calm statement than by her father’s joke. Elizabeth gathered her courage and her composure, trying to remind herself that the fate of her future happiness rested on convincing them to try her plan.
“I understand you have been discussing my future. Is it not only fair that I have a say in the matter?” Taking a steadying breath, she went on, her head held high. “I wish to propose a compromise of a different kind,” Elizabeth said, aiming the comment at her father. She looked pleadingly at Mr Darcy, reminding herself that he was both as much a victim of the mishap as herself, and deeply deserving of her gratitude for issuing an offer of marriage — however little she wished to actually accept the offer. He could not have wished it. Surely he would wish for an escape as much as she did.
“Do you not find the entire sequence of events odd?” Elizabeth asked them both. “For example, why did Mr Darcy fall so violently? And why did I receive a note summoning me to the library?” She gave them both a moment to consider.“I have been thinking about it all night, and I do not believe it was an accident that we were in the library together and that we were discovered. I think someone has been the architect of all our misfortune.”
Her father looked as if he might fall over in a dead faint, and that was a difficult thing to achieve, for he was not easily flustered.“You received a note to go to the library? From whom? I want to see it immediately!”
Elizabeth pulled her note from her reticule and gave it to her father. When she had at last suspected the significance of the note, she had thanked the heavens she had not thrown it away.
“This is significant indeed,” Mr Darcy remarked intently. “You see, I too received a note asking me to go to the library.”
Elizabeth gasped in shock. “You too, Mr Darcy?”
He nodded and seemed about to speak, but Mr Bennet gestured for silence as he perused the note. Elizabeth waited impatiently as her father read, her heart beating faster every time Mr Darcy looked at her. And he seemed to be watching her every move.
“Who is this Mrs X?” her father demanded. He walked over to his desk on the other side of the library and smoothed the note out.
“I do not have the faintest idea, Papa. Perhaps I ought to have been more suspicious, but it did not occur to me at the time. When I arrived in the library, I decided to browse the shelves as I waited for this Mrs X to appear. The next moment I knew something strange was afoot was when —” The look in Mr Darcy’s eyes retold the story. Suddenly, she remembered the feeling of laying in his arms, pinned under him. Elizabeth blinked, but the memory of how he had looked into her eyes with such concern, how he had embraced her so tenderly, left her heart beating more quickly than she wished to admit.
Elizabeth quickly shook the disturbing thoughts away. Such thoughts were not enough to build a life on — not when he had no regard for her, and would surely come to regret a forced proposal. No matter how gallantly he had acted the night before, she must stick to her convictions.
Still, an inkling of doubt played at the back of her mind as they gazed into each other’s eyes. Was he also reliving that moment? Elizabeth could not forget how tenderly he had tucked her hair behind her ear and ran his fingers down her cheek.
“Elizabeth?” her father pressed. She tore her eyes from Mr Darcy’s and shook her head, feeling lost for a moment.
“Ah, yes, Papa? Where was I?”
“You knew something was afoot when — ” her father prompted.
“Yes, I knew something was not right when Mr Darcy tripped so violently. He is not a clumsy man, not in the least. We all stumble from time to time, of course, but why such a very violent fall, and why at precisely that moment?” Oddly, Mr Darcy looked rather flattered at her simple statement that he was rather graceful, which anyone who had observed him at close range could see to be true.
He cleared his throat.“I will not say that I am never clumsy. But it was very odd to me as well that I should have tripped like that. And even then, there was not much of a crash, yet a crowd of people said that a loud noise had brought them to the library.”
“No, you are a very graceful faller,” Elizabeth agreed. She felt her cheeks flush at the ridiculous compliment. How absurd of her!“That is to say, I do not remember hearing any great crash.”
“Neither did I. What about you, Mr Bennet? What brought you to the library? Did you hear anything strange, or did someone alert you to what had happened?” Mr Darcy turned to her father to include him in the conversation. Elizabeth startled. As they had been speaking, she had almost forgotten he was standing there.
“I did not hear the crash, but I was alerted that there had been an incident in the library. I believe Kitty was the one who came to retrieve me from the grand salon, along with Mrs Bennet.” Her father put his hand on his chin and rubbed it, as he often did when he was deep in thought.“You say you also received a note, Mr Darcy? Do you have it on your person?” he asked.
“Yes, I do.” Mr Darcy retrieved the note from his waistcoat pocket and brought it out, smoothing it on the desk as Mr Bennet had done with her note. The three of them leaned in and compared the notes.
“They look very similar, do they not?” Elizabeth asked. Her heart lifted, hoping that Mr Darcy had recognised the handwriting. If they could track down who had written the notes and lured them to the library, then they might be able to prove their innocence in front of the whole community and save themselves from having to submit to this unwanted marriage.“I thought it strange that the penmanship was so untidy. Did you notice that as well?”
“Yes, I did, rather. I have never received a note from Mr Hurst — there has been no occasion for him to write to me.” Mr Darcy straightened, sighing.“Indeed, I thought it very odd that Mr Hurst would write me a note at all. Why would he not simply inform me he had something to discuss? But I suppose that at the time, I thought he wished to arrange for greater privacy. Now, I believe it was not from him, but from some unknown person.”
“It is a conundrum,” her father said. He walked away from the desk and began pacing in the few spare feet of the wood floor that could be seen. Everything else was crowded pell-mell around the walls. It was the one room in the house that her father refused to let her mother touch, and had therefore descended into a happy bit of chaos.“Can either of you think of who would want to subject you to this kind of scandal? Mr Darcy, being a more prevalent face in society, could you have made any enemies that might wish to cause you embarrassment?”
Mr Darcy shook his head.“I cannot think of anyone,” he said.“Believe me when I say, sir, I did not sleep last night for replaying the incident in my mind. I hope I can assure you once more that I would never willingly put your daughter’s reputation in jeopardy.”
The look in his eyes sent shivers up her spine. She could not pretend to herself that it had been caused by fear. It was a new awareness of him, perhaps — an awareness that Mr Darcy had a kind of honour she could not help but respect. He had made it clear he would sacrifice his own wants to protect her. Something twisted inside her. Elizabeth could not help but wonder if she had misjudged him.
She hardened her heart against the idea. It would be folly to allow Mr Darcy to control the situation. His unquestioning choice of the solution society would accept, no matter what it would mean for both their happiness, was proof enough of that.“I can think of no one, either. I hope I have no such enemies,” Elizabeth remarked. At least, none that made sense. Miss Bingley had made no secret of her dislike, but she of all people was quite above suspicion. Miss Bingley would never have orchestrated an incident that quite literally pushed Elizabeth into the arms of the man she herself so obviously wished to marry.
“So, what is it you are proposing, my dear?” her father asked after a long pause.“I cannot allow Mr Darcy to recant his promise of marriage simply because you were both asked to the library by some unknown person. In the eyes of the community, you are both guilty of a grave misstep indeed.” His eyes were filled with compassion, and she knew it gave him great pain to be so candid with her.“Of course, I hope you both know that I do not judge you as the rest of the world might. If you say that it was an accident, I believe you.”
Elizabeth let out a relieved sigh.“Thank you, Papa,” she said, leaned close, and kissed him on the cheek. However, his trust in her did nothing to absolve them in the eyes of the world — he was right on that point. She straightened and walked a few paces away so she could face them both.“What I propose is this: that we work together to find the culprit and prove our innocence. If we succeed promptly, then there will be no need for us to marry and we can dissolve the engagement. It is a compromise of another kind, as I said earlier, between total ruin and a marriage that neither of us wants.”
A flash of some unknown emotion crossed Mr Darcy’s face as she finished. He paused for a moment before speaking, almost as though he had needed to collect himself.“I agree that something is very wrong with the whole situation. What I cannot say for certain is how we could find this person, whoever they might be, and prove that what happened was indeed an accident.”
